Close Together
by Padlock
Summary: They never talked before. They barely did ever lay eyes upon the other one. But one mere coincidence.. And they're suddenly.. close together and can't part. But that's what they want. Right?  HitsuRuki. T for language and up-coming events.


**S**ticking** T**ogether**—**Chapter 1**: Growing... into a problem?**

**H**itsugaya 

As long as he could remember, he had been little. Always the smallest, youngest kid around, even if he wasn't young at all.

Even when he got to his Grandmother, filthy and coarse—an ill-mannered child—it had been like that. And back then, he was the youngest with his strange white hair and cold eyes and short temper if you would judge his age by the level of his mind. Yes, at the beginning he had been very young, there was no way denying it.

If Hitsugaya remembered hard enough—not that he really wanted—he could see a short sequence of a fight between kids, he playing the main role of course. He was one or one and a half heads under his nowadays height as a captain and punched a few kids in the face for teasing him about his fragile body, white hair and girlish eyes.

Well... The good old times where he could still end a fight with a punch into the face.

"Ne, Shiro-chan... Tell me. How are you feeling?" His sharp eyes turned to his childhood friend and left therefore the falling snowflakes. Hinamori and him sat in the garden of the 10th division, on a stone bench. She was finally ready to be a shinigami again and he was glad that she decided to stay in Seireitei as it was the right thing to do.

And plus, she almost looked like her old self again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why are you asking?" he questioned sceptically and raised an eyebrow. "Well.. Uh.. Rangiku-san told me..." Now he had her full attention. "She told you what?" "That... you were.. slightly bothered..." What the hell? "Spit it out," he grunted impatiently and felt like the five-year-old he had never been. "Bothered with your height."

He passed her a look. Watched the snowflakes. Passed her another look. Watched the snowflakes _again_. Passed _another_ look.

Then, he slowly took a long breath. "Was that the reason you wanted to talk to me that badly you even offered to do Matsumoto's paperwork?" Hinamori seemed to be irritated because of the unnatural coolness in this situation. "Yes?"

Hitsugaya jumped from the bench, gave his childhood friend a really good shock and dashed off while shouting "MATSUMOTO! We need to talk!" in an angry and loud voice that it made Momo shiver and nearly drop of the bench.

Hinamori's eyes followed him disappear out of the garden and she heard him shout after his lieutenant quite a while before his voice slowly faded away. An amused chuckle escaped her and Momo raised from the bench, passing the pretty gray sky a last look. "Still predictable, Shiro-chan," she whispered to herself with a smile and started to walk to her own division.

After the winter war, there was a lot to do. Especially in the 5th division. 

**Elsewhere**... 

Matsumoto was heading to the 3rd division, when she sensed (and heard) her captain's furious reiatsu (his shouting). "Oh..." She whirled around to concentrate on sensing the reiatsu but at that very moment, her captain slid around a corner and glared daggers at her.

"Captain...! What's wrong?" A nervous smile graced Matsumoto's features and she darted around, starting to escape her captain. Yes, his height has always been a sensitive issue as far as she knew. Why did she play with fire? Because her captain was always stiff. But maybe she needed another way to make him loose his stiffness in future...

"Matsumoto! Stop right now!" Hitsugaya shouted angry and chased after his nervously laughing lieutenant. "It wasn't my fault that the paperwork got burned!" He stopped dead in his tracks but than chased after her again. "You dare to set the paperwork on fire?" "I said, it wasn't my fault!"

The strawberry-blond woman disappeared around the corner and he did the same—though that she didn't ran into Kuchiki.

"Hitsu–"  
"Kuchi–"  
Slump.

Hitsugaya felt hot breath on his neck and a body under his. His eyes switched to the purple ones next to him. She stared back. Her arms were winded around his chest, her hands gripping firmly onto the white material of his haori. "I'm sorry, Kuchiki", he told her rough and quite breathless as he picked himself up and pulled her with him.

The hands of the black-haired woman were still holding onto the back of his haori when she said, "No, don't be. I should have paid more attention to my surrounding." Her kind of low voice made him shiver inside and he found his hands on her waist and his voice strangely husky, while replaying something that sounded like "my fault" or "whatever" or maybe both of it at once.

His face had felt motionless until now and his eyes were as cold as ever, so he really didn't know why she blushed, a soft red tinting her cheeks. "Well... Maybe we–"

"Captain!"

Behind Rukia's back, he found Matsumoto gaping at them, blushing, too, but in a darker, more mature red—he would _definitely_ scold her for these thoughts which were literally jumping out of her eyes. "I didn't know, you and Kuchiki-san were all lovey-dovey! Why didn't you tell me sooner? I'm your favorite lieutenant, am I not?"

Pouting, she moved closer, only stopping by the death glare her captain gave her. "You're my only lieutenant, Matsumoto, and you would do better if you moved back to the office immediately... There's a lot of paperwork for you on your desk. And believe me—your worst hangover isn't anything against what you will get if you don't do it properly."

The strawberry blonde shinigami with baby blue eyes looked shocked. "Okay, okay, captain, I'll be doing it," Matsumoto obeyed—though she was still pouting. "But you've grown, you know?" With that, she finally disappeared, leaving a frozen Hitsugaya behind.

He didn't expect it but it was Rukia's voice that pulled him out of his 'What-the-hell-did-Matsumoto-just-say?'-state. "Hitsugaya-taichou... It's true. I may tell you that lieutenant Matsumoto spoke the truth. Remember the time my zanpakuto Sode no Shirayuki threw a party and your shinigami got involved..?"

He nodded but didn't get what she was implying or trying to explain to him.

"I was taller back then." Yeah, she had been. He could remember the unsatisfied feeling inside of him because even the frail Kuchiki girl was taller than him. "But now we're standing next to each other. And we are eye to eye."

Finally, he noticed. That cool purple and cold teal were on the same height.

But he hurried to let her go after he noticed that his arms were still around her. But in his hurry, he suppressed something. The fact that the Kuchiki girl and him were alike. 

**About 78 hours later**. 

Hitsugaya was walking around the same corner after which he ran into Kuchiki. He hoped that something like that wouldn't happen again to him in thousand years. The unusual heat on his face was still alive in his memories. A bit to alive but he couldn't help it. The feeling of her hands on his back, the closeness of her body...

It all made this memory from about two days ago seem to happen only a few minutes ago.

And the worst about that insistent (and maybe kind of dangerous) feeling he had when he thought about the memory and her—was a thought that hadn't struck him before. The soothing and releasing influence which Rukia Kuchiki set loose in him. Deep inside him. If someone would actually dare to ask him, what exactly he was referring to, Hitsugaya might look clueless.

_You sure are stubborn, master_... Hyourinmaru's low voice growled through his mind and although he was still making his way to the 6th division to deliver some papers, the white-haired captain managed to be in the world of his mind. Or his zanpakuto. The ice desert with the jet black sky and the white glowing moon stunned him again, like it always did when Hitsugaya allowed himself to travel to this place.

_What do you mean?_, asked Hitsugaya confused and shook his head. His zanpakuto was much wiser than him, that was true, but that didn't give him the right to speak in riddles. The tall, lean figure of Hyourinmaru appeared in front him, his outlines framed by the moonlight.

A small grin could be seen on the zanpakuto's lips. _I am referring to the obvious._ Here went the riddles again. _The obvious? _Hitsugaya frowned. _I still don't know what you're trying to say. What is the obvious?_ A light breeze came up, ruffling the hair of the young captain. _The obvious is the reason, why you're feeling so loose if Rukia Kuchiki is so near to you._

Okay. So what if he did have the guts to admit that fact to himself? That was good, wasn't it, he improved in knowing himself and showing a little bit softness even before his zanpakuto told him. But having Hyourinmaru in front of him and implying that he actually knew the reason why he was thinking so much about something that was nothing more than a meeting of one or two minutes and a mere coincidence on top of that...

So he actually could have known the reason for this 'loose feeling' thing around Rukia Kuchiki. But he didn't know, so Hitsugaya was eager to listen. Or more like.. he was curious.

_So will you tell me now?_ The question slipped out of Hitsugaya before he could stop himself or even thought to try being impatient. _I will. But maybe you need to learn how to read your feelings. Because that is something you still need to improve._ Furious, the captain made a step forward. _What? But I want you to tell me, you even called me here!_ Anger swirled through teal eyes but Hyourinmaru snickered quietly before smiling. _I never called you, master. You came by yourself to learn. And learn you did._

Hitsugaya growled unsatisfied and wanted to shout something but a shock from the outside sent him flowing from the mind world of Hyourinmaru back into reality. And before him was a irritated Rukia Kuchiki, sitting on the wooden floor and looking up to him in confusion.

A nervous smile graced her lips. "Hitsugaya-taichou... Here we go again.. I'm so sorry for running into you like this again..." He felt his cheeks heaten up and opened his mouth to answer. Too bad that not one word came out of it—he just stood there, gaping, and stared down at her. After some seconds where he found himself unable to stop that damn gaping, Rukia attempted to pick herself up.

The white-haired captain was—of course—faster and hold his hand out. "N.. No, don't be sorry. It was my fault." He couldn't believe he did just need more than one try to speak. But if Hitsugaya was surprised by the strange feelings in his stomach, his reaction to the next thing happening was beyond... everything.

When their skin touched, their fingers fitting perfectly around the other one's hand, the air cooled down, even making their breath suddenly visible. If they had been outside, he swore, it would have snowed.

"Wow, what's happening in front of my bureau?" Jushiro Ukitake smiled questioningly at them and then shivered, before sneezing. "And why are you holding hands while Rukia-chan is sitting on the floor? Did she fall down?" With a clueless look on both their faces, Jushiro helped Rukia get up and the two shinigami of the same height (Hitsugaya smirked satisfied at the back of his mind at this thought) gazed at each other.

Before they realized, they were (again) being too close to another and _still_ holding hands. But when they pulled or _tried_ to pull their fingers apart, nothing happened apart from wasting some energy. "What..." Hitsugaya looked at his left hand. It was still wrapped around Rukia's, Apparently loose but he actually couldn't even move half an inch away from her skin. Her soft skin. Her pale skin. Her... Okay. _Enough_.

Her violet orbs widened before she looked helplessly at her taichou. "What should we do now? Ukitake-taichou? How could this happen?" Hitsugaya looked concerned, too, at the older man but unfortunately, the captain looked as helpless as they felt. Ukitake didn't have to say that he didn't knew a solution, it was written in his eyes.

"Well, then the 12th division would be the one who knew what to do. They're not too far from here, so if we hurry we'll surely grab someone before they're closing down for today, right?" Hitsugaya was just about to move forward, but stopped when Rukia raised his eyebrows and didn't move a single leg. "The 12th division is near? We'll need at least fifteen minutes and we can't shunpo like this."

She had a point.. Shunpoing while his right hand was holding her left would be difficult, but... "Shunpo? It's just a few hundred meters from the dorms of the 6th division. The smaller white-haired captain looked quizzically to the older one. "We're in the 13th division. Why else would I be here?" Ukitake smiled apologetically but frowned after a few seconds. "So you thought this was the 6th division?"

Hitsugaya felt his cheeks heat up again. "No, I was just... mixing things up. I'm sorry, Ukitake-taichou." His teal eyes were laying on Rukia's violet ones for a single moment, before he was pulling her to the door through which he came in.

"I'll accompany you," Ukitake exclaimed happily but stopped dead in his tracks. He coughed and shielded his nose and mouth with the wide sleeve of his haori. "Taichou!" Rukia shouted patted the shoulder of the man worriedly. "Stay here, we'll go by ourselves." Weakly smiling, the easily ill-becoming captain sighed. "Of course... I guess the cold aura around you two is not that healthy for me..."

And the two shinigami left—Rukia glancing back at her waving superior—heading to the 12th divison to find a solution for their little problem. 

**To be continued.**

Author's Note:

Hello(s) to you, people.

**I don't own Bleach and I don't earn money with this.**

I hope you liked the starting of this HitsuRuki-Fanfiction that once was nothing more than a One-Shot Idea. :) 

**HUGS & KISSING** – Padlock


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